Unto us a Child is Born~ Keeping Christ in Christmas

When I was growing up, I never heard that we gave gifts to our loved ones at Christmas in remembrance of God’s ultimate gift to us of Jesus.  

Keeping Christ in Christmas – and what to do about Santa?

The best way to keep Christ in Christmas is to keep Him at the forefront of your family’s lives every day of the year. To do that, make sure to study the Bible with your kids and frequently talk about how to “live” what it says. Also, choose to be part of a Christ-honoring, biblical church family. Talk to your kids about Biblical truths and memorize Scripture together.

Once your kids are old enough, regularly talk about the cross, and what that means to us as believers. How we are reconciled to God forevermore because of Christ’s substitutionary death on our behalf.

If you have very young children,  you might be wondering about what you should tell your kids about Santa. Many Christians feel as though there is no problem with Santa. But you might find yourself not feeling quite comfortable telling your kids there is someone they can’t see who all-knowingly “sees them when they’re sleeping” and “knows when they are naughty or nice.”

The difference between Santa and Jesus might be a little confusing to young children, mightn’t it?

If you are experiencing that niggling doubt, it could be that the Holy Spirit is telling you to do something different in your family.

Without judging anyone else for “doing Santa,” we opted not to tell kids there was a ‘real live’ Santa who brought them presents.   (We don’t ‘do’ the Easter bunny or Tooth Fairy, either.)  We haven’t been sorry about that decision, even though there were some fireworks in our family about it when our children were small.  If you are wondering how to deal with that issue,  here is a post from an author/friend who had a ‘gentler’ way to deal with the issue.

Other simple ideas that reinforce that Christ is the center of Christmas:

• If you send out Christmas cards, have them be Christ-centered, rather than generic holiday cards.
• If you make them, stamp a simple graphic on them with a Bible verse included. Here are some Bible verses that we commonly see at Christmastime.
• Keep Christ the central focus of your holiday activities. This thoughtful article helps keep your preschoolers from being overwhelmed with it all.
• Consider a family service project during Christmas time, such as shoveling your elderly neighbor’s lawn, serving as a family in your local shelter’s kitchen, or singing Christmas carols at a nursing home.
• Set up a nativity scene — hopefully of an unbreakable material — and let your kids play with it, retelling and dramatizing the Christmas story. This is the one we have (affiliate link), given to us by my thoughtful mother-in-law a few pieces at a time. We have loved it because it is made of some kind of resin that survived lots of dramatizations. In fact, with our children now in their mid and late 20s, it is still is one of our kids’ favorite things to unpack and set up for Christmas.

Above all, keep decorations, dinners, schedules, and gifts simple so there is time to relax together, serve others and focus on the true meaning of Christmas!

 Christmas for Kids